


stealing moments, moments away

by waveridden



Category: Friends at the Table (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M, Season: COUNTER/Weight, basically AU where September is a normal college
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-12
Updated: 2019-12-12
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:29:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21772222
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/waveridden/pseuds/waveridden
Summary: “Great,” Maritime says decisively. “Cool. Finals road trip, this is a great idea.”
Relationships: Tower Chalet/Mako Trig
Comments: 2
Kudos: 15
Collections: 2019 AU December Challenge





	stealing moments, moments away

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is part of the AUcember series, a self-made challenge where I try to write a new AU one-shot every day. You can read all of the AUcember fics in the collection linked above. Title is from October by Alessia Cara.
> 
> CONTENT WARNINGS: a little bit of drinking, potentially underage depending on how old you read the characters as being, and some general college student jackassery.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Maritime leans forward, distraught. “You’ve never seen the light displays up north?”

“Uh, no?” Mako says. There’s popcorn falling out of his mouth as he talks, because he always kind of acts like he was raised in a barn. Or maybe college is just like that for him. “What, why would I go on a three-hour road trip to see light displays? There’s plenty of stuff to do here.”

“Because it’s-” Maritime gives Tower a completely distressed look. “Tower! Back me up here!”

“It’s pretty cool,” Tower says. “I’ve been a couple times.”

“A couple times?” Mako repeats. “What, why would you go more than once? Isn’t it the same every time?”

He shrugs. “I mean, it’s basically the same, but-”

“But it’s a tradition!” Maritime bursts out. “And the art is amazing, we have to go!”

“Light sculptures are pretty cool,” Maxine says. She tosses another piece of popcorn into Mako’s mouth, which he catches with ease. “It’s too bad it’s finals week so we can’t go.”

“Yeah,” Maritime sighs. “And Mako needs to see them.”

“It’s literally just light displays and sculptures,” Mako says. “Like, how cool could it possibly be?”

Tower shrugs. “It’s pretty cool. Even if you don’t like the actual sculptures, it’s a nice town.”

Mako makes a face. “Fine,” he says, and Tower feels warm and pleased for a moment. “We can go next year.”

“Or,” Maritime says suddenly. “Maxine, you have a car, right?”

“Yeeees,” Maxine says slowly. “And I don’t have any finals tomorrow.”

“My last one’s in the morning,” Tower offers. “And I can drive there if someone else drives back.”

“I’ll bring snacks,” Mako offers. “I mean, if we’re gonna actually go, I definitely want snacks.”

“I’ll bring backup snacks,” Tower says, because sometimes Mako’s snacks are real snacks and sometimes it’s a six-pound bag of gummy bears, and there’s really no way to predict which one it ends up being.

Mako grins at him. “What, you don’t like my taste in snacks, Tower?”

“You have great taste in everything,” Tower says blandly. Mako brightens, and Maritime coughs loudly behind him. Tower ignores her, because she’s just being a shit-starter. “Besides, by backup snacks I just meant beer.”

“Great,” Maritime says decisively. “Cool. Finals road trip, this is a great idea.”

“It’s gonna make a great story to tell someday,” Maxine offers. “Like, next year when we’re all in finals hell, we can get together and say, ‘Hey, remember that time we blew off studying to go to a light show? That was a great time.’”

“Yeah, next year,” Mako says. Maritime gives him a strange look, but he shoves a fistful of popcorn in his mouth and says around it, “Great plan, team. Gonna have fun.”

#

When they set off on their road trip, Maxine’s trunk has two six-packs of beer (from Tower) several massive bags of popcorn (from Mako), a couple of emergency supplies (from Maxine, presumably) and a couple of boxes of sparklers (also from Mako).

“Ted couldn’t get me real fireworks,” Mako complains, about an hour into the road trip. “He said it was too short notice.”

“You asked Ted for fireworks?” Maritime says dubiously. She called dibs on shotgun, because it was technically her idea. “What exactly do you think we’re doing here?”

“I just thought it would be cool, you know?” Mako splays his hands in front of him, a gesture that Tower can see from the rearview mirror. “Lights. Sculptures. And explosions. It’s a perfect combination.”

Maxine lifts a hand and pushes Mako’s hands back into his lap. “I don’t know where you get your ideas from, but I don’t trust any fireworks that Ted would get us.”

“Ted’s fireworks probably spell things in the air,” Tower says. He likes Lazer Ted, but the guy is weird as hell. “And I don’t really want to get kicked out of the sculpture garden.”

“What if they spell normal things?” Mako cranes his neck so that he can make eye contact with Tower in the rearview mirror. “What if I set off a firework and it just says, like, ‘wavy’ or ‘hello’ or ‘nice’ or something like that?”

“First of all, if you think wavy is a normal thing, you’ve been spending too much time around Ted.” Tower grins at Mako through the mirror and is rewarded with a flash of a grin in response. He looks back at the road, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel. “Second of all, it’s only fun if you get to pick what the words are before they explode.”

“No it’s not!” Mako protests. “What if you set off a firework and it just said ‘fish’ and that’s it? That would be  _ hilarious. _ ”

“That would be pretty funny,” Maxine murmurs.

Mako points at her. “See!” he says triumphantly. “It would be cool as hell! Maritime, back me up here.”

“I like sparklers better than fireworks,” Maritime says, which gets an exaggerated gasp out of both Mako and Tower. “Ugh,  _ boys, _ explosions don’t have to be big to be cool.”

“Wow, I can’t believe Maritime’s a coward,” Mako says. Maritime turns around to give him a glare, which Tower is glad not to be on the receiving end of. “I’m just saying! Fireworks are fun.”

“Sculptures are fun,” Maritime says pointedly. “If you wanna blow things up, you can do it on your own time.”

“Tower and I will find time to do it.” Mako leans forward and hooks his chin over the driver’s seat so it nudges against Tower’s shoulder. “Right?”

“Right,” Tower says, because even though he’s pretty neutral on explosions and fireworks, he’s never going to say no to a chance to spend time with Mako.

Maritime settles back in her seat. “Traitor,” she mutters, but there’s no heat behind it.

Tower shrugs. “What can I say? I’m a man who knows what he likes.”

“You sure do,” Maxine mutters. Tower shoots her a look in the rearview mirror, but she just smiles politely at him. “Maritime, can we change up the music? This stuff all sounds the same.”

“Absolutely not,” Maritime protests.

Tower settles back into his seat, feeling Mako’s chin bump against him one more time. He lifts his shoulder, knocking lightly against Mako’s chin. Mako makes an indignant noise and leans back, catching Tower’s eye in the mirror to pout at him. Tower just smiles back, and he can see a grin pulling at Mako’s mouth.

#

The light sculptures are… okay. Just okay.

It’s a pretty cool display, but Tower secretly agrees with Mako: once you see it once, you don’t have to go back every year. It’s a sculpture garden all year round, but for one month a year there are interactive light displays, additional sculptures, and family-friendly activities.

And it’s fine. Mostly Tower enjoys letting Maritime, who has gone every winter since she was a kid, guide them all through the displays. She oohs and ahhs over everything and talks about past years. That’s the real fun in it, and Tower can tell that both Mako and Maxine agree.

“I want to go through again,” Maritime says, as soon as they’re finished. “You guys coming with?”

“Nope,” Mako says. “That was cool and all, but it’s not really my scene. I think Tower and I are gonna light up sparklers and throw them at people.”

“No throwing,” Tower says automatically, before the rest of the sentence catches up with him. He coughs. “Uh, Maxine-”

“I’ll go through with Maritime again,” Maxine says, because she’s a hero. “Tower, you have the keys to my car, right? You can drink, but if you even  _ look _ at the steering wheel-”

“I won’t,” he says quickly. “We’ll probably just… find somewhere to sit or something.”

“Ooh, sitting, nice,” says Mako, because he gets excited about weird things sometimes. “You guys have fun, take your time, we have a  _ lot _ of sparklers.”

“How many is a lot?” Maritime asks suspiciously.

“Don’t worry about it,” Mako says, and hooks his arm through Tower’s. “Ready?”

“Yep,” Tower says, and ignores the knowing looks that both Maxine and Maritime give him. His crush on Mako may be painfully obvious to them, but it’s not to Mako, and he wants to keep it that way for a little while longer. “Let’s go.”

They end up finding a picnic area that’s covered in snow, a dozen or so tables with nobody sitting at them. Tower sets one of the six-packs on a table and looks at Mako. “Are these weird sparklers?”

“Dunno!” Mako sets the box of sparklers next to the six-pack, along with a matchbook. “I mean, it’s Ted, so maybe?”

“Probably.”

“Yeah, they’re almost definitely gonna be green or play music or something.”

“Or something,” Tower echoes. Lazer Ted is studying chemistry, and he does  _ not _ use his powers for good. “What do you want to do with the sparklers, anyways?”

“I wanna duel,” Mako says brightly. “But, like, carefully, because, y’know. Sparklers.”

“Sure,” Tower says, and pops open a beer. He hands it to Mako, who takes it and takes a long drink. “Now?”

“Nah, we can get started in a minute.” Mako waits for Tower to open his own beer and then clinks their bottles together.

Tower grins at him. “What was that for?”

“That’s what you do when you drink, obviously.”

“Oh, obviously?”

“You’re telling me you don’t clink with people?” Mako shakes his head in mock disappointment. Tower laughs out loud, and Mako’s expression immediately melts into a smile. “For shame, Tower!”

“Yeah, yeah.” He clinks his bottle against Mako’s. “There you go, happy?”

Mako takes a drink instead of answering. He settles back against the table, not quite sitting on it because it’s still covered in snow but still putting most of his weight on it. “This has been nice,” he says.

Tower glances at him. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.” He doesn’t meet Tower’s eyes. “It’s good spending time around you guys.”

“We like spending time around you too,” Tower says gently. Mako talks like this sometimes, strange and distant even though he’s close enough to touch. It always makes Tower’s heart ache. “I’m glad you came with us.”

“Me too,” Mako says, and turns away. Tower is debating actually reaching out to him when he realizes that Mako’s actually turning to pick up the sparklers. “You wanna duel?”

“Yeah, sure.” Tower sets his bottle on the table, resting it in the snow. He takes a sparkler when Mako offers it to him. “What are the rules for the duel?”

“The rules are, try not to burn yourself or me too badly.” Mako lifts up his sparkler and then lights a match. “Ready?”

“Ready.”

He puts the match up against his sparkler, then Tower’s, and then there are gold sparks everywhere. The sparklers appear to be normal, until Mako taps his against Tower’s, and then a shower of red sparks flies out. Tower yelps and jumps back, and Mako just laughs and does it again. “Duel!” he yells.

“I’m dueling!” Tower says, and lunges towards Mako. Mako lifts his sparkler to defend against Tower’s blow, like it’s a swordfight. A couple of sparks land on Tower’s hand, but he’s wearing gloves, and besides, he can’t bring himself to mind when this stupid duel is making Mako laugh like this.

They go on like that until their sparklers run out, and then until the box of sparklers is empty. Tower is loosely aware of people walking past them, of them getting strange looks, but he positively doesn’t care. Mako is keeping score, with a convoluted system that seems to give him way more points than it gives Tower, but Tower doesn’t even bother questioning it.

“I need a break,” Tower laughs as soon as the box runs out. “No more, I just wanna drink for a bit.”

“And save your dignity,” Mako says wisely, but he picks up his beer. “You lost those duels pretty badly, you know.”

“It seems that way.” Tower settles back against the table again. “You’re just too good at dueling, Mako.”

“Yes I am.” Mako leans back against the table, but he’s closer this time, his hip pressed up against Tower’s. “It’s like you’ve never done a sparkler combat scenario before.”

“Never,” Tower laughs. “Are you kidding? That’s a Mako Trig original.”

“I promise you that it’s not.”

“Well, it is for me.”

Mako smiles at that, looking pleased. Tower can’t help but smile back, turning so he’s facing Mako a little more fully.

There’s a beat, an elastic moment that seems to last forever. Tower isn’t sure why, but it feels like every hair on his body stands on end. And then, next thing he knows, his body is pressed up against Mako’s. He’s not sure which one of them moves first, but his hands find their way to Mako’s hips, and then Mako’s lips are on his, cold and chapped. He tastes like shitty beer, and the air smells like burnt matches, and Tower feels like he’s floating.

It’s a brief kiss, not much more than a press of lips, and then Mako pulls back. “Tower,” he says, and Tower waits, swipes his thumb down the front of Mako’s coat. Mako opens his mouth, then closes it, makes a frustrated noise, leans in again.

Mako’s mouth is careful against his. Tower’s not sure how many people Mako has kissed, but there’s a caution to this that seems unusual for him. One of his hands lands on Tower’s waist, and Tower smiles, kisses with a little more gusto.

He’s not sure how long they stay like that until Mako pulls away again. “I’m not,” he says, and then, “I don’t,” and then, “it’s not-”

“That’s okay,” Tower says. And maybe it’s not okay, but for this moment he can’t make himself mind. Mako’s head thuds against his shoulder, and Tower squeezes his hips for a second. “Mako. It’s okay.”

“You sure about that?”

“We can talk about it later.”

“Yeah,” Mako says. “Later.”

And Tower wants to ask about that, wants to know why Mako always sounds like this when he talks about  _ later. _ He’s so cagey about the future, even more than the average college student.

Instead, he takes his hands away and lets Mako lean back against the table again, like before. He picks up his beer and takes a long drink and wills his heart to slow down.

“This is nice,” Mako says after a beat. “Just… being here. I’m glad Maritime dragged us here.”

“Yeah,” Tower says. He has to keep looking straight ahead, or else he’s going to stare at Mako’s lips for the rest of the night. He takes a deep breath, feeling the cold air in his lungs, and tries to relax. “Me too.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is loosely based on a true story. Loosely.
> 
> Come say hi on Tumblr/Twitter @waveridden!


End file.
